Clusterbot and Walker/shuffler etc rules

[Flag Captured]

Just a little bit of confusion on my end, but what ruleset exactly are beetleweights following? The reason I ask is because I seem to have gotten it into my head that the Antweight ruleset is in place given Beetles are also insect-weights but just thought I'd ask in advance before designing anything new! The main ones I'm wondering about are shufflers being allowed a weight bonus (which I'd assume would be 2.25kg if you scale it up 10x?) and clusterbots only being eliminated once all cluster parts have been knocked out...

[Eventorizon]

I believe its down to the EO what types of machines class as walkers and what the rules are even if they are using the FRA ruleset. But before we even reach what weight advantages they might get you have to define what a walker is.
I know that for the feathers the legs must have 3 axis of freedom, so that puts cam-based systems like Anarchy out. However I remember chatting with James and Grant and even their 6 legged spider, who's legs can move in all 3 axis, would not count as its still effectively cam based at its core.
Even going with 'in the spirit' of walking doesn't work as then its ambiguous and people may... what am I saying... they WILL disagree over what is legal and what isn't.
As far as I can see the only way to do it and be totally legal is to build a Hexapod or Octapod with servos, linac's or hydraulics, then you have total control over each leg individually.

[Max]

In ants I beleive they define a walker as the output doesn't rotate through more than 180 degrees. This allows for virtually any type of cam based walker. As beetleweight is still an insect class this rule could also be used (obviously this wouldn't really work for feathers or heavies). They also only give an extra 50% weight allowance for walkers. Just food for thought.

[Flag Captured]

Well this is the thing, in Antweights the cam based systems are just 'walkers' instead of shufflers but you don't get a double weight bonus, just 1.5x across the board which I guess evens it out a bit. I know the Beetleweights are a lot heavier than antweights but they're also usually classed in that insect category too so I don't really know. I mean, I for one wouldn't have a problem with 50% heavier walkers and clusterbots not being counted out after one part has been KO'd but obviously wouldn't want to build either before checking what the official stance is...

[RogueTwoRobots]

Just because beetleweights are being classed as an insect-weight doesn't mean that they'll follow the Antweight rule set. The ant community is completely separate from the FRA, they run their own events and rules. I imagine more often than not, BW events will fall under FRA events/rules so you'd probably be better off building to those guidelines. You might get an official stance from each organisation but that will only count for so much, it'll depend on which event you go to.

[razerdave]

The Antweight World Series is not affiliated with the FRA in any way. It has it's own rule set specifically for that event. If the FRA ever did an ant event, by THEIR rules, then we would not be allowed to use shufflers, and the robots wouldn't have to fit into the cube. Beetleweight fights may be held at AWS's on rare occasions, but all current Beetle EO's run the FRA rule sets.

[Ellis]

I'd like to see shufflebots given an allowance. Not the full 100%, maybe 33% or something. They aren't easy to get right in classes where 3D printing is too feeble (pretty much anything >150g).

[Flag Captured]

Ahh fair enough, I thought it was sort of like a sub-division of the FRA. In which case that does make sense entirely! It would be nice to see some beetle-centred variation maybe on the clusterbots and shuffler rules in the future if it does shift that way but if it's the FRA ruleset I'll definitely carry on building to that for now haha